Call of Duty 3 Impressions

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Treyarch's WWII shooter is headed to PS3 and we get a taste of war.

By Chris Roper

Call of Duty 2 was released late last year on the PC and Xbox 360, was a launch title for the latter, and was easily one of the system's best early games. Call of Duty 3, this time in production by Treyarch rather than Infinity Ward, is scheduled for release next month and will act as one of the PlayStation 3's own launch titles. We had a chance to see the game in action today, running on a final PlayStation 3 debug system. It gave us a nice look at how well the WWII shooter is shaping up for Sony's next-gen platform.

The most obvious thing about the game's visuals is that this is a darker and more contrasted game than Call of Duty 2. By that, we don't mean that everything is set in the dark of night, but rather that blacks are blacker and shadows hide their hiders with ease. The contrast between light and dark gives the game a more realistic look than we've seen in the first two titles in the series, and we'd say it looks better for it.

Soldiers are self-shadowed in a rather harsh way that really gives them depth (making them stand out and feel more "alive" than before). It's certainly a different art style, one that's grittier and feels a tad bit more like what you'd expect from a WWII shooter, and overall, the game already runs quite well. We wouldn't say it runs at a rock-solid 60fps, but it's certainly smooth enough to keep people from be complaining. In fact, given the amount of detail and number of particle effects happening at any one time, COD3 is fairly impressive, especially for a first-generation title.

Call of Duty 3 will also make pretty good use of the PlayStation 3's SIXAXIS controller -- allowing you to use the pad's 3D spatial recognition to perform a number of tasks. For instance, if you want to perform a melee attack and take out an enemy soldier with the butt of your rifle, just quickly twist the controller horizontally. At one point you'll need to use the controller like an oar to row a boat, and when you set an explosive on an object, you'll actually need to twist the controller to set it and ignite the detonator. It's neat stuff, and we're pretty sure it isn't all that we'll see.

While most of what we did see looked pretty promising, it wasn't perfect. For one thing, texture detail in certain spots leaves a bit to be desired. Also, the ground, especially when rocky, looks a little more low-res than what we'd expect from a next-gen title. Weapon textures weren't as detailed as we'd have liked either, and the ones with wooden components especially stand out.

It also seems like the AI needs a bit of tweaking before the game's release. At one point, we witnessed two enemy soldiers taking cover and firing at the rest of our squad. Circling around to the side, we put a number of rounds into them without much of a reaction -- they simply kept firing at our squad mates instead of repositioning or firing back at us. Given the series' exceptional AI up to this point, we expected better, though again, there's still a bit of time to polish it up before release.